Oregon's All Roads Transportation Safety Program Data-Driven Program to Improve Safety on All Public Roads

Historically, the Oregon Department of Transportation (DOT) has spent the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funding only on state highways. However, half of the fatalities and serious injuries occur on nonstate roadways. To address this concern and to comply with the federal requirement that the HSIP funding be spent on all public roads, the Oregon DOT developed a jurisdictionally blind safety program, known as the All Roads Transportation Safety (ARTS) Program, to address safety problems on all public roads in Oregon. The objective of the ARTS Program is the same as that of the HSIP: to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads using a data-driven approach. The ARTS Program has two components: hot spot and systemic. For the first round of the ARTS Program, safety projects were selected by using a combination of a selection approach and an application-based approach. For the hot spot component, potential safety projects were identified by using crash history, and the projects were prioritized on the basis of benefit cost ratios. The systemic component with three emphasis areas: roadway departure, intersection, and pedestrian and bicycle was an application-based process in which the Oregon DOT and local agencies competed for available safety funding. Systemic projects were prioritized on the basis either of benefit cost ratios (roadway departure and intersection projects) or cost-effectiveness index (pedestrian and bicycle projects). Through collaboration with various stakeholders, the Oregon DOT was able to select safety projects on all public roads with a data-driven approach. It is expected that these projects will significantly improve safety on all Oregon roads by reducing fatal and serious injury crashes.